[bizerl (OP)]

Since this is the only forum I'm a member of, I'll use it for my rant. As a southern hemispherer, I HATE when release dates or schedules are tied to a season. "Autumn release", "Due Spring 20XX" for example.

In the age of the internet where pretty much everything is international WHY THE FROG DO PEOPLE STILL DO THIS?!? Drives me mad. Don't people realise that seasons change depending on which hemisphere one is?

Anyway, that's my rant.

[RD]

It's Northcentrism , but to be fair about 90% of the world population is in the north.

[CliffordK]

Should we also ban all references to Reindeer and Sleighs with respect to Christmas?  Or, is it more PC to have a sleigh pulled by kangaroos?

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I saw a film about an Australian that chose to throw a party and burn a "Yule Log" on Christmas.  People got close to passing out from heat stroke.

I do try to at least modify my references with a location when discussing time and weather on an international website.  "Northern Winter"...   I assume people can translate depending on their local climate.

[bizerl (OP)]

I don't have issues with seasonal links between Christmas and winter, as well as Easter and the coming of spring, or any other holiday that started in the northern hemisphere but is still celebrated down south. But if I see "coming this summer" I want to know if it's here in June or December. Why can't they just say "coming this December"?

It's like saying a time but without the time zone.

And 10% of the population is still 700 000 000 people (according to wiki).

[CliffordK]

One might note that if you ignore the United States and Canada, then the Current British and Former British colonies are heavily weighted to the tropical regions and the southern hemisphere.

What are you seeing with  "coming this summer" ?
TV Ads?
Movie Ads?
Ads on the internet?

It certainly wouldn't take much for large Hollywood producers to specifically target the country where the ads/movies are being viewed.  Many companies make location specific web sites, so a website viewed in North America would be displayed in English, and the same website displayed in South America would be displayed in Spanish (and sometimes it is difficult for tourists to find the English version).

Once one had country or hemisphere specific sources for material, one simply changes the "coming this fall" to "coming this spring".

[Don_1]

With the old interwebnetthingamajig, time reference by way of 'morning', 'afternoon', 'evening' and 'night' can be the cause of some confusion. If I make reference to something that's happening this afternoon, it makes no sense to someone in India, where 'this afternoon' has been and gone. Likewise "I'm off for morning coffee" might seem a little odd to someone in LA, who's just off to bed. These problem time references can at least be overcome by dropping vague time reference in favour of actual GMT time. Viz: "I'm off for 10.30 GMT coffee".

What am I bubbling on about???

I do get your point bizerl. But I have come up with a solution to your problem.

1st. - Move Christmas to June. Since it was decided to celebrate the alleged birth of Jesus on 25th of December by the Catholic powers of the time, so that it fitted in with existing Jewish and pagan celebrations and with no regard to the evidence pointing to this alleged birth more likely to have taken place around May, I foresee no problem with this. So then you will be celebrating Christmas nearer to the alleged proper date and, like the northern hemisphere, during the colder month of the year. Also, with 7bn + people on the planet, you'll be giving Father Christmas a better chance to get around the entire world. Its got to be easier for him to do it over two nights, with a long break in between, than fit it all in to just one night.

Those poor reindeer; we don't want Daddy Crimbo reported to the RSPCA* for cruelty to animals.

(*Royal Society for the Protection of Animals - UK - Other national animal protection organisations are available)

2nd. - Spring, summer, autumn, winter are all terms invented by Man (or Woman) as is evident by the fact that in American English, the term 'autumn' is substituted by the term 'fall'. In other words, any of the four terms could be used to describe any time of year. So, you change the term you use for the time of year! Spring becomes autumn, summer you call winter, autumn is renamed spring and winter becomes known as summer.

With this done, you will have summer at the same time that the northern hemisphere has summer, the only difference being your summer will be the coldest part of the year, while it will be the hottest in the north.

As I said before, this will enable you to have Christmas during the colder month of June, so you and Santa won't look silly wearing a dirty great coat with a fir trims and a hood and a pair of wellie boots, BUT, you can still say you have Christmas in the summer.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go lie down in a darkened room.

Damnation, now there's a knock on the door..... Hmmm strangers wearing white coats and bearing gifts, noteably a wierd jacket with lots of straps and buckles. I wonder what they might want???

[CliffordK]

Since Bethlehem is in the Middle East, on the edge of the desert.
Perhaps those of us in the North should be celebrating Christmas in the middle of the summer.   []

Many people believe the Christian holidays were chosen to commemorate the seasons, and not the life of an individual.

Christmas = Winter solstice, or the birth of the new year.
Easter = Spring, or the beginning of the next planting/growth season.

Many cultures also have harvest holidays such as Thanksgiving in the USA.

If Christmas is commemorating the shortest day of the year, it would make sense to move it to shortly after June 21.  However, celebrating it on different days would cause a certain amount of chaos, and make the cultural references more cumbersome. 

Of course, the Russian Orthodox Christmas is on January 7^th.

[cheryl j]

Well, in Canada, we call September to November  "winter." December- March is referred to as "more winter," and  March -May "still f**king winter."

[alancalverd]

 

One might note that if you ignore the United States and Canada

and the weight of the elephant...

Of course, the Russian Orthodox Christmas is on January 7th.

My birthday! How perspicacious of the Russkies. Now if I can just avoid crucifixion, we may be able to get the job done this time...

As for Canadian seasons, my recollection is of "snow" and "flies", separated by brief periods of "hatching flies" and "dying flies". Like Scotland, but with bigger flies and more snow. 

[alancalverd]

But seriously, folks, how about abolishing time zones? Wherever Man has explored the rest of the universe, the time is UTC (Zulu, GMT, call it what you like) EXCEPT on our own planet!

In orbit, in the air, at the poles, or at sea, the time is UTC. So why not in Delhi? (UTC +5:30, for gawd's sake!) 

Why do some adjacent states mess with their clocks in "summer" (whenever that may be) and others don't?

Why do we have a wobbly date line on this planet when it's  2013:12:01 everywhere else in the universe?  Isn't the whole of relativity predicated on the universality of a perfect clock?

The effect on the global economy of abolishing local time would be worth billions of dollars: all anyone would have to do is announce once and once only that his business hours, say, are 1400 - 2300, or that the plane takes off at 0835 and lands at 1055, returning 1850 to 2110. No missed flights (no embarrassing hoots of laughter and confused old ladies when the pilot announces the wrong local time) , no confusion about which trade or contract takes precedence...

Why (actually the answer is "constitutional law") do we need an annual parliamentary debate on Summer Time? Just scrap the whole thing and tell everyone that from 2400Z on 2014:12:31 the time everywhere will be UTC, always. If you want to get up an hour earlier in the summer, it's surely up to you, not some scumbag politician.

[CliffordK]

In the UK, there is one time zone, or is that for most of Europe? 

In the USA, we have 4 in the continent, plus Hawaii and Alaska.

So, if it is 8:00 AM EST, then it would be 5:00 AM on the West coast, 4:00 AM in Alaska, and 3:00 AM in Hawaii.

Russia has even more time zones.

I suppose one could get used to the changes, but it is handy to consider it "Morning" at 8:00 AM, or so, around the globe.  Especially within a single country.  The towns on time zone borders are a bit odd, but they can deal with it.

As far as "Daylight Savings Time", I would be all for abolishing it.  Or, personally, I would push the time back an hour in the spring, and forward in the fall.  Give more evening hours in the winter.

[alancalverd]

The UK, Ireland, Portugal and Iceland are on London time (UTC). Most of western Europe is an hour ahead.

So, if it is 8:00 AM EST, then it would be 5:00 AM on the West coast, 4:00 AM in Alaska, and 3:00 AM in Hawaii.

but not necessarily in Arizona, which doesn't have summer time. As I discovered when flying from Dallas to Los Angeles with a plane change in Phoenix: absolute bloody pandemonium.

The towns on time zone borders are a bit odd, but they can deal with it.

But why should they have to "deal with it"?  Why not abolish the problem?

Why is it "handy" that 0800 = morning? Morning is when the sun is rising, afternoon is when it is sinking. Would it be any less "handy" if 1300 was morning?

The oddity of time zones is particularly apparent in parts of Spain which are 30 minutes west of London and therefore have local (solar) time after UTC, but by statute they are in the west European time zone which is one hour ahead of UTC. So nobody gets out of bed early because it is still dark, and the actual business day starts an hour or two after the rest of Europe. I thoroughly enjoyed a few weeks in the Spanish factory of a French company. No point in working after 1100 local because that is 1230 EU time and everyone at head office (Paris) is at lunch, so we knock off and eat. But the sun is still rising and it's too hot for manual work when the sun is overhead (1400 - 1500, thanks to Summer Time) so we all have a siesta, which leaves just two working hours before the rest of Europe shuts up shop. But hey! it's still bright and sunny, and nobody wants to eat dinner in the heat of the afternoon, so we slope off to the bar for a couple of hours, then eat and party until 2400 local which is 0200 on the clock, so we have to sleep until 0900 if we want to be fit for work tomorrow.  It's a great life, with a normal working day of about 4 hours. No wonder the Spanish economy has gone down the toilet. 

[Don_1]

Why don't we just abolish clocks? I know when its day time 'cause its light and I can see things. I know when its night time, 'cause its dark and I bump into things, 'cause I can't see them.

And, abolish calanders. I know I'm getting older, 'cause things don't work so well as they used to. When I don't notice that something isn't working so well any more, I know its probably fallen off. I don't need to know when its my birthday, I don't want to know when its my birthday, moreover, I don't want to know when its someone else's birthday, 'cause I can't be bothered with birthday cards and I'm not buying them bloody present.

We don't need calanders. Farmers seem to have managed without them in the past. I don't recall reading that "farming began when the first calander was printed with entries such as 'plant Sprout seeds today' and 'harvest Sprouts today' under the relevant dates became available". No. They knew what to plant when and when to harvest what.

I know when its winter, 'cause its bleedin' cold, wet, windy and 'orrible. I know when its summer, 'cause its not quite so cold, wet, windy and 'orrible, with any luck.

The only reason we had to have clocks and calanders was that some big kids wanted to play boats.
"Oh!" They cried, "We wont know where we are and which way to go if we don't know the time and date." Well, that's your look out, sunny Jim. You want to go out playing with big boys toys, be it on your own head.

Yep, I say 'down with clocks and calanders'.

What do we need clocks for??? I know when its day time I should be working and when its night time, I should be sleeping. There seems to be bugger all else to do in between, these days, or at least bugger all I can afford to do. Well, perhaps that's not entirely true. The fact is, if I'm not working, I can't afford it and if I can afford it, I'm too busy working to find the time to do it.

And calanders, why??? I know I should be working today, 'cause I'm alive. I get to stop working when I'm not alive anymore. What date might that be? Anyone got a calander?